Ravensmash
Member
Lots of things in life are unnecessary.
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Absolutely STUNNING images of Dubai's Skyline (and more).
- Thread starter RustyNails
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Lots of things in life are unnecessary.
FalsettoVibe
Member
Wow. Amazing. :O
The whole city is a testament to human waste, hedonism and disregard for social cohesion.
Most annoying are all the excuses made by expats who leech on the system and use it to just fulfill their childish impulses. A bunch of fucking estate brokers and what not pretending like they are doing something meaningful.
Instead of wasting countless billions on monuments of glory that will not last the test of time, all the resources could have been used much more efficiently. And that's not even taking account all the human rights abuses that go on behind the curtain.
The thing is that Dubai will be absorbed by sand at some point in the future, when the money supply runs out and when there is nothing of substance to hold the city together, but the expats will have moved on by then of course.
It pisses me off so much. Just like the oligarchs who have stolen so much (always about oil and gas) and spend it on yachts, football clubs and just pointless nonsense. But there will always be cheerleaders making excuses just like in the case of this "beautiful city" - a real human achievement.
/rant
Most annoying are all the excuses made by expats who leech on the system and use it to just fulfill their childish impulses. A bunch of fucking estate brokers and what not pretending like they are doing something meaningful.
Instead of wasting countless billions on monuments of glory that will not last the test of time, all the resources could have been used much more efficiently. And that's not even taking account all the human rights abuses that go on behind the curtain.
The thing is that Dubai will be absorbed by sand at some point in the future, when the money supply runs out and when there is nothing of substance to hold the city together, but the expats will have moved on by then of course.
It pisses me off so much. Just like the oligarchs who have stolen so much (always about oil and gas) and spend it on yachts, football clubs and just pointless nonsense. But there will always be cheerleaders making excuses just like in the case of this "beautiful city" - a real human achievement.
/rant
Phat Michael
Banned
Holy fuck. I've only seen him in person during the Burj Khalifa inauguration.
dummydecoy
Member
No "I'm too handsome for Dubai" joke yet?
Phat Michael
Banned
You got deported for having sex on a beach didnt you?
So much anger here. Get out and see the world more, it can be a beautiful place when you dont hate everything.
Phat Michael
Banned
Yeah i work in one of his companies - we dont get to see him often but this is probably the closest ive gotten - im not important enough to get introductions and hand"sheikhs"
The thing I liked and miss the most about Dubai was just the infrastructure and how everything worked like a well oiled machine.
Wide travelators in the metro, the RTA card system and how it was as easy as swiping in the bus and metro, how easy it is to get cable, internet, etc, how easy it is to buy alcohol when you have a permit, how quickly you can check in and check out of a clinic, getting a driver's license, etc. Everything is just convenient.
How the penalty for using an ATM machine of another bank than your own is just 1 AED ($0.27) while its $3 or a $20 withdrawal where I am in the US. Just the little things, you know.
I'm from India where corruption's ruined the system and everything requires 10 more steps than it needs.
Wide travelators in the metro, the RTA card system and how it was as easy as swiping in the bus and metro, how easy it is to get cable, internet, etc, how easy it is to buy alcohol when you have a permit, how quickly you can check in and check out of a clinic, getting a driver's license, etc. Everything is just convenient.
How the penalty for using an ATM machine of another bank than your own is just 1 AED ($0.27) while its $3 or a $20 withdrawal where I am in the US. Just the little things, you know.
I'm from India where corruption's ruined the system and everything requires 10 more steps than it needs.
So much salt and ignorance, it's funny how some of you expect Dubai to be perfect when your own country is full of corruption, huge gap between rich and poor, archaic laws, racist stories, homophobic stories etc. There's not a perfect country in the world and it takes time to change.
Most the people bitching about a place are the same who have never been to said place.
As for Dubai, it's not my kind of city, I get the appeal since it's similar to Las Vegas, but I like my historical sites. And I don't like when the appeal relies around what to do with your money.
Most the people bitching about a place are the same who have never been to said place.
As for Dubai, it's not my kind of city, I get the appeal since it's similar to Las Vegas, but I like my historical sites. And I don't like when the appeal relies around what to do with your money.
Phat Michael
Banned
its defn getting better. You know i registered my car online this year? didnt even need to take it to RTA or anything - the entire process (incl insurance) is automated now which is really surprising.
Yeah all bills are now online, you can use the credit card machines at Cinemas etc
Its not perfect, (you always need passport and visa copy with you at all times and 5 x Passport sized photographs lol) but its miles ahead of Kuwait or any other GCC country that's for sure.
ElectricBlue187
Member
It's like if Las Vegas was run by crazy religious fundamentalists.
Phat Michael
Banned
Yes i love how everyone here is bagging on Dubai for having Slave Labour/Anti Homosexual/Poor people being treated badly - yet many of them are proud to live in America? Im pretty sure America has a history of slavery amongst the other things being mentioned.
hahha! i didnt enjoy vegas because i thought it was too much like Dubai! And on my trip, i wanted to get away for something completely different.
I preferred NYC and LA much more - Vegas was very similar to some of the richer areas in Dubai (Jumeirah Beach road etc) - too opulent and expensive.
It's not about criticising Islam, it's about freedom of speech.
As for insulting someone and swearing: http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/courts/jailed-expat-learns-the-hard-way-no-cursing
Yeah, baseless. Sure thing buddy.
ElectricBlue187
Member
It's hilarious to read the mental gymnastics required to justify the labor practices in Dubai
Bububut America!
Bububut America!
Oh good, I'm glad to hear that nothing happens if you hug your girlfriend in public.
Also, about those prostitutes:
http://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/st...uae-officials-launch-crackdown-051514759.html
Fair play, the government there is trying to crack down on those responsible, but that he was advocating hiring prostitutes in a place where nine of out ten women trafficked in suffer physical and sexual abuse is appalling.
Phat Michael
Banned
Did you actually read that article? it's really quite positive. And Nasif Kayed is a friend of mine who actually showed everyone how you should behave. The guy insulted someone on a recorded conversation - not very smart. Especially to an Emirati.
Oh the old freedom of speech argument. Gotta love it! The same freedom of speech where people lose their jobs if they say anything inflammatory right? or get fired over twitter comments?
I dont think you really want to come to this country - and that's fine, im sure you can feel free to criticise islam from the comfort of your own home if that is a priority to you.
Dont you know, 'they' need to be tamed to 'our' standards.
Nobody is defending the labour issues since its near enough to slave labour, its the hypocrisy in these threads thats get people annoyed.
Freedom of speech means you aren't persecuted by the state for what you say. Surely you know this.
I don't think you understand what freedom of speech is.
Not sure why you're being so defensive of Dubai, but it'd probably be more effective if you knew what you were talking about.
I don't think you read the entirety of my post. I specifically comment on the age of some of the statistics and asked for more background on the entire ethnic make-up of the city (more than just native Emiratis) from anyone who had it available. I'm not interested in the number of Emiratis; I'm more curious about its growing ex-pat culture. Since it seems you recently did do a report on it, I'd appreciate if you could answer some of my questions from the post. Could you link me to the most recent census, or other reports that provide some more recent information? I tried going to this website, which I assumed to be the government's official website for statistics, but the latest their material seems to go is 2011 or so for some items, and earlier for others. The census material they show is from 2005, and I'm not familiar with how frequently Dubai performs its census. Wikipedia seemed to have at first glance much of the recently available content per that website, so I perhaps relied too heavily on Wikipedia.
Also, your discussion of the industries in Dubai seems to focus on hospitality, tourism, and technology. I'm interested to hear of the development of the financial services industry there. Do you have any details regarding its growth in the past decade and how it has reacted to the financial crisis?
I'm not coming into this with any agenda like some of the others in this thread. I am just rather curious about the population boom that has occurred since 2005 and how the city has changed as a result in ethnic makeup and industry focus.
ElectricBlue187
Member
How is it hypocrisy, exactly? Im gonna go ahead and assume nobody on this forum is personally responsible for oppressing people. It's okay to be critical of shitty things done in the US and Dubai, you don't have to play for one team or the other and you don't have to preface every criticism with "The US is total bullshit but-" either.
BertramCooper
Banned
Take a look at his profile.
Oh! lol
ElectricBlue187
Member
Perhaps it was premature for me to say nobody is personally responsible for oppressing people...
Dubai is a shithole and its built on pure human hedonism and vice. The problem is that its something that can applied to anywhere, including at home.
Countries like USA definitely have labor issues but there's no point trying to draw comparisons, because human rights abuses are not silently approved anywhere near the same scale as in places like Dubai.
UAE is a destination for a lot of young girls from Eastern-Europe, Morocco etc - they are often sold to sexual slavery. Same applies to many men of course even though construction work is a different kind of beast. I know one case personally, passport was confiscated after arrival and sexual services had to be provided.
Well, this is what he says.
Goes both ways.
Well you could always hire the ones that are not forced into it that earn $1000 per night.
But this is the same as any country. The fact of the matter is there is order of magnitude less crime, rape, murder, assault, robbery, gun crime etc than America or my own country (UK). People bang on about the odd horrible case, but if you actually go to Dubai, no one really enforces any of the more strict rules unless you step out of line blatantly, other than that, cases are extremely rare.
The case posted on the previous page about a man having sex before marriage and being imprisoned was reported by his wife, so in essence he was cheating with another women. My guess is the judge just took pity on the wife and sent him to the slammer.
The reality is, in terms of daily living, it's much safer, cleaner and better structured in Dubai than it is in many Western modern countries. And when you talk about cheap labour etc, most Western countries were built off of it, and still ARE living off of it. From your mobile phones down to your clothes and many of the products we live off on a day to day basis. Sort of reminds me about the shit storm when people found out Primark was having clothes made by child workers and workers in awful conditions, horrendous pay etc in Bangladesh/India, and then Primark reacted to the bad press by closing the factory, which in return caused even more of a shit storm because suddenly thousands were homeless and couldn't find work even if they wanted to, essentially left to die and with no way to feed their families. No one's making justifications, but don't pretend to understand the situation because you read one or two Telegraph articles that are now several years old anyway.
Honestly, I don't know if it's an anti-Arab or an Anti-Muslim thing, but the amount of ignorance shown in this thread has been stifling. I'm guessing most of it has been from people who have never actually been to Dubai, which is hilarious and somewhat ironic.
Quite frankly you are trying to whitewash human rights abuses, an authoritarian system and a waste of natural resources by weak sauce excuses.
I don't buy any of it. You can create a similar illusion in any oppressive country as a tourist but it doesn't remove the underlying issues that are widely reported and known.
Why should anyone marvel these hollow monuments and human hedonism (Just read the list that some idiot posted, hiring prostitutes and playing golf. Whoopdedoo) when they represent corruption and waste? At least in places like St. Petersburg the palaces are now museums, in public use and represent the history of the country.
What makes it all worse is the amount of potential wasted.
I don't buy any of it. You can create a similar illusion in any oppressive country as a tourist but it doesn't remove the underlying issues that are widely reported and known.
Why should anyone marvel these hollow monuments and human hedonism (Just read the list that some idiot posted, hiring prostitutes and playing golf. Whoopdedoo) when they represent corruption and waste? At least in places like St. Petersburg the palaces are now museums, in public use and represent the history of the country.
What makes it all worse is the amount of potential wasted.
Or they represent a forward thinking Arab nation that realises it can't survive off of limited oil surpluses and is making rapid advancements to secure itself as one of the worlds most attractive tourist destinations (which it now already is) in order to ensure it stays self sufficient and has a timeless revenue stream.
Have you ever been to Dubai?
Oh and on a side note, you do realise the country that produces by far the most "waste" in the entire world is the US right?
Phat Michael
Banned
financial services is quite big here. however, it is not my field so I won't comment too much. if you are interested look up DIFC, dubai international financial centre, it's like Dubai's equivalent of Wall Street but obviously not as big or populated. I believe it's another themed free zone dedicated to financial services.
Phat Michael
Banned
lol so i live in Dubai, therefore I am responsible for all the negative things here perceived and and mentioned in this thread? give me a break.
for the record, I've travelled a lot in my time and a rule I like to follow is not to make uninformed opinions and comments about a city until I have experienced it first hand.
I am from Australia and was born and raised there. I moved here in 2003, do you really think if it was a "shithole" that I would have stayed here?
I have had multiple job offers internationally but I don't want to move because there are some serious benefits to living here. good salary, tax free income, free healthcare, free trips home each year, safety, low crime rate and what I consider a very high quality of life.
sure it's not perfect as it is a very young nations (42 years old) and an emerging economy. but before you make these claims about dubai you should actually visit here.
Karma Kramer
Banned
Messofanego
Banned
Resemblance to Spec Ops: The Line is almost complete.
I thought that bit in Spec Ops was not real, just a more heaven-like surrealness but now I know. Wow.
Karma Kramer
Banned
Don't you think the West deserves some credit? Who designed and advanced technology/science? Also isn't diversity good? I mean it certainly comes with its price of assimilation/civil wars/etc but don't you think its a good thing that in the west you can practice any faith? Not to mention separation of church vs. state and freedom of speech?
Phat Michael
Banned
well just on one of your points, you can practice any faith here. there are catholic churches, Hindu temples, mosques etc.
in terms of diversity, there are 125 nationalities in my organisation. dubai is a pretty multicultural place.
of course the west deserves credit, they designed all the buildings and helped with a lot of the work in shaping the city. I don't think anyone's claiming the Emiratis did all this themselves.
Phat Michael
Banned
I'd say bur dubai, karama, international city would be the main ones. also some areas in Al quoz or Al barsha.
if you want to see the normal parts of town you can google the following.
greens community
jebel Ali gardens
discovery gardens
dubai marina
jumeirah lakes towers
these are all medium priced areas where a lot of the working professionals live.
SneakyStephan
Banned
They should try that shit on gaming side, see how long they last.
Go into a thread about the new pikmin game and leave a deuce on the first page that says 'nintendo is for kids lolol'
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
When I saw this one, I immediately thought, he's its Zanarkand!
Ravensmash
Member
That is such a beautiful shot, would love to visit.
Phat Michael
Banned
once you leave the Marina it looks like this. I took this when we took the company yacht out last month to go around the palm for a team outing.
Karma Kramer
Banned
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_the_United_Arab_Emirates
I wouldn't call that diversity, separation of church vs state, or freedom of speech.
Because diversity entails equal rights. Not subjugation.
Not a separation of church vs state
Not freedom of speech
Some examples:
UAE: Australian woman raped by Muslim gang, then jailed for having sex outside of marriage (reported on GAF last week)
Modern, moderate Dubai arrests two for witchcraft
Dubai fines British expatriate $800 for insulting Ramadan
Phat Michael
Banned
another shot from inside the Marina.
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